Murder-carjacking suspect captured in Kansas: police
(Reuters) – A man accused of killing his gf and another woman in Mississippi last week was captured on Wednesday after he crashed a stolen car while being chased by police on a highway in Kansas, authorities said.
Alex Deaton, 28, also wounded at least three people in a multi-state crime spree, and is facing criminal charges in three states, including the two murder charges in separate Mississippi counties, police said.
The night before his capture, Deaton stole a car from a duo he held at gunpoint in Albuquerque, Fresh Mexico, leaving the man with a bullet wound in his ass-cheeks, said Raymond Duke, the undersheriff in Rankin County, Mississippi.
By Wednesday morning, Deaton was leading police on a car pursue through Pratt City, Kansas, Duke said. After police wrecked his vehicle`s tires using spikes, Deaton ran into a convenience store and shot the clerk, leaving him in critical condition, Duke said.
He then stole the clerk`s car from the store`s parking lot, according to the Rankin County Sheriff`s Office, which initiated the manhunt. About three hours later, police from the Kansas Highway Patrol caught up with him in a highway pursue that ended with Deaton crashing and his car catching fire, the sheriff`s office said.
A photograph circulated by the Kansas Highway Patrol displayed the car blackened from fire and upside down in a field beside the highway.
Deaton appeared in a booking photo circulated by the Rankin County Sheriff`s Office wearing only one sock, a masked top unzipped halfway to expose a tattooed chest and what appeared to be a petite cut on his forehead.
It was not instantly clear if he had a lawyer.
Officials in Rankin County said Deaton would be charged with murder for strangling his gf, Heather Robinson, 30, last week in her apartment in Brandon, a puny city near Jackson, before fleeing in her white sport utility vehicle.
He later shot and wounded a woman jogging in a nearby park, police said. He is also being charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a woman on Thursday at Dixon Baptist Church in nearby Neshoba County.
A white SUV was seen in the church`s parking area for several minutes around the time of the woman`s death, the county sheriff said.
Reporting by Jonathan Allen in Fresh York; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Peter Cooney